Catholic News & Perspective

May 2019

By: Timothy P. O'Malley Scriptural numbers have meaning. In the Book of Revelation, the city of Jerusalem is designated as a city saturated with the number 12. There are 12 gates, 12 angels, 12 tribes, 12 courses of stones and apostles. Why is the number used so often? The number 12 is an image of the perfection of time and space in the natural...
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by: Kurt Martens The document Vos estis lux mundi (“You are the light of the world”), issued motu proprio (“on his own initiative”) and signed by Pope Francis on May 7 and published two days later, sets the stage for a new and revolutionary approach to fighting sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. That the new legislation...
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By: Msgr. Owen F. Campion Once upon a time, the Byles family, with Irish origins, lived in England. One son, Thomas, remained in England and was ordained a priest. The other, William, emigrated to New York. In time, William was engaged to be married, and he wished for his brother to travel from England to officiate at his wedding. So, plans were...
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By: Brian Fraga As the school year wraps up, tens of thousands of Catholic high school graduates are preparing to move on to the next stage of their lives, whether that’s college, the workforce or the military. But wherever they go, their teachers and...
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By: Teresa Tomeo During one of his visits to his native Germany early in his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the need for silence in our lives. Benedict gave the address about the same time I was wrapping up the manuscript for my first book, “Noise: How Our Media-Saturated Culture Dominates Lives and Dismantles Families”...
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By: Timothy P. O'Malley At present, critique of the Church has reached a fever pitch within American society. One cannot read a non-Catholic media account of the Church in the United States that does not mention the sexual abuse crisis. The temptation in such moments for Catholics is to respond with a kind of sectarian surety — let us be,...
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By: Brian Fraga The so-called Green New Deal, particularly because of its lead congressional sponsor, is controversial and polarizing, but the broad vision it articulates for environmental justice appears to be compatible with the Catholic social teaching principle of caring for God’s creation. Without commenting on specific policy...
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By: Msgr. Owen F. Campion My first visit to this storied church was long ago. I was a seminarian on holiday touring Europe. I have returned to Paris many times and have made the point to go to the cathedral. I often went there for Mass, but just I physically felt it watching the live television coverage of the fire at Notre Dame cathedral.as...
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By: Timothy P. O'Malley When we hear the word “apocalyptic,” images of wrath and destruction come to mind — blockbuster films with malevolent aliens or brain-hungry zombies. The “apocalyptic” refers to the foreboding promise of destruction, the end of the age in which human history comes to a screeching halt. The...
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By: Brian Fraga Americans who do not identify with any religion — the so-called “nones” — are now as big a part of the country’s population as Catholics and evangelical Christians, according to data from the General Social Survey. The survey, which interviewed more than 2,000 people in 2018, indicates that the...
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